Carl :: UP – Character Q & A

INTERVIEWER: No, not long. Um, I can’t help but look around at your marvelous home.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Is that a question?

INTERVIEWER: No, I’m sorry. What I wanted to start with was, well, how did it all start…I mean, your home?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: My wife, Ellie, drew it. When we were kids we played in this very same house. It was our adventurer clubhouse. We’d play at being like our hero, Charles Muntz.

INTERVIEWER: Charles who?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Well, it’s before your time, I guess. But anyway, we always thought we would travel the world, going to strange places. And later, when we got older, we fell in love and got married, and then we rebuilt this very same house, together.

INTERVIEWER: From the drawing?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Precisely. Exactly as she drew it. And it is our pride and joy. She is in every board, nail and window.

INTERVIEWER: And Where is Ellie?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: She’s no longer here. But I carry her with me every day. I think she’s watching over me.

INTERVIEWER: That’s sweet, Carl. Do you get many visitors asking about the house?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: You have no idea.

INTERVIEWER: It’s a curiosity. Downtown, you expect to see high-rises, condos, retail, mixed-use, but not single-family homes, and certainly not a handcrafted, hammer-and-nails structure like this.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Nope. And these same hi-rise hooligans want to take their bulldozers to my little house here. They’d do well to mind their own business. So I make sure no one sets foot on my property. Can’t trust the lot of them.

INTERVIEWER: That’s very intriguing. But as I was coming up the sidewalk, I saw a boy in a uniform just leaving.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Oh, you saw that. That was Russell.

INTERVIEWER: Who’s Russell?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Some neighborhood kid asking to assist me, to get some kind of badge or something I don’t need any help.

INTERVIEWER: He looked like a sweet kid.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: I have no time or tolerance for sweet.

INTERVIEWER: Back to the house. Did you have any kind of formal training in construction, or was Ellie an architect?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Heavens, no. I sold balloons. And Ellie, she drew pictures, mostly of birds. Used to be you didn’t have to have training .You just put yourself to the task and did it, and you learned along the way. We learned as we went. And we had a heck of a lot of fun.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think there’s still a place in our city for a house like yours?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Why not? I’m still here. That’s a silly question.

INTERVIEWER: But so many great, old structures have been swept aside to make way for progress.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: And by progress you mean for these hulking monstrosities that block out our view of the horizon? Made up of stacked little boxes with beady-eyed people in them?

INTERVIEWER: That’s one way of putting it, yes.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Well, all I can say is that if people want to live like that then that’s fine. But it’s not for me. Never has been, never will be. I don’t tell you where to live.

INTERVIEWER: It may be out of your hands. Do you think this is bigger than you?

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Oh, I know what you’re getting at. It’s because I’m old, isn’t it. And my house is old. Now, listen, I don’t need you, or Russell, or anyone else helping me. I’m just fine. This old house and me are doing just fine. We can take care of ourselves. And I wanna tell you something else-- This old balloon salesman may have a trick or two up his sleeve, just in case anyone gets any ideas about what should be done with Ellie’s and my home, or where I should be living. Understand what I’m saying?

INTERVIEWER: Yes, Carl, I think I do.

CARL FREDRICKSEN: Good. You’re a very nice lady. And thanks for stopping by. But I got a few things I need to take care of around here.